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Cream Strawberry Tarts

A tart of layered strawberries topped with a creamy custard and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Strawberry Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the tart

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Arrange the strawberries in layers in a deep pie tin lined with puff pastry, sprinkling ½ cup sugar between each layer.

  3. Fill the pie tin with strawberries and pour in some of the juice.

  4. Cover with a thick crust, making a slit in the top, and bake until golden.

Make the cream filling

  1. In a saucepan, heat the cream until boiling.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg whites, 1 tablespoon sugar, and cornstarch mixed with cold milk.

  3. Boil the mixture for a few moments until smooth, then set aside to cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the cream mixture into the pie through the slit in the crust.

  2. Serve cold, dusted with powdered sugar.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Strawberries
Provide the main fruit flavor and juice that moistens the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the berries and helps draw out their juice.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp crust that holds the filling.
Cream
Gives the filling richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg whites
Help thicken and set the cream filling when heated.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream mixture as it boils, giving it body.

The step that matters

Boil the cream mixture until smooth. Cornstarch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, and egg whites must be heated enough to cook and stabilize. Undercooking leaves the filling thin or grainy, while the mixture should be stirred continuously so it does not scorch or lump.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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